Giyu Tomioka stood there quietly.
His deep blue eyes remained expressionless as he coldly surveyed Zohakuten, who was suspended in mid-air.
With the blessing of the [Transparent World],
The Upper Rank monster in front of me, who looks incredibly powerful and has repeatedly rubbed Sanemi and Obanai to the ground, has his underwear completely exposed.
"The power is indeed immense, and the attack range of the Blood Demon Art is ridiculously large."
"But."
"This guy's reflexes and muscle power are just too slow."
Giyu silently gave himself an extremely harsh assessment.
Of course, this slowness is relative to his own past performance.
In Giyu's opinion, this Upper Rank Four was at best an Upper Rank Moon, a fragile mage who could only stand still and cast AOE spells.
If it were any other pillar, facing such a large-scale, indiscriminate attack by wooden dragons would be an absolutely fierce battle; they would have to write their wills in advance.
But in front of Giyu Tomioka...
This thing is really not good enough.
"Who... who are you?!"
The Zohakuten in mid-air finally recovered from the shock of the wooden dragon being instantly chopped into firewood.
He stared intently at the man below wearing the mismatched haori, his youthful face contorted with rage.
He could clearly sense that the aura emanating from the man in front of him was completely different from that of the three good-for-nothings lying in the mud behind him.
But this was useless; his anger only grew stronger.
"How dare you so ruthlessly sever the wooden dragon I used to punish villains!"
"You wicked scoundrel who aided and abetted evil, your crimes are compounded!!"
Zohakuten raised his drumsticks, ready to strike the taiko drum again and teach this arrogant, expressionless man a lesson.
Pity.
Giyu didn't even bother to say a single word of nonsense to him.
He lowered his center of gravity slightly.
The Nichirin Blade in his hand, gleaming with a blue light, had its blade slightly angled.
Immediately afterwards.
Without warning, a domineering yet eerie purplish-red hue suddenly merged into the aquamarine ripples surrounding the blade!
The ever-flowing life force of Water Breathing contrasts sharply with the destructive power of Moon Breathing.
At this moment, Giyuu and Giyu merged into one in a completely unreasonable and violent way, perfectly and violently.
The next second.
Giyu's figure blurred instantly.
"What?!"
Zohakuten's originally indifferent pupils suddenly shrank to the size of pinpoints.
The drumsticks had barely reached their highest point when they were raised; they didn't even have time to fall.
He only felt a gentle breeze, carrying moisture, caressing his face.
Immediately afterwards, a stunningly beautiful crescent-shaped blade of light, interwoven with light blue and purplish-red, suddenly exploded at his neck!
"Whoosh--"
The head of Zohakuten, still bearing an expression of resentment and astonishment, along with the conjoined drums behind him.
It was sliced in two with unparalleled smoothness by this unreasonable cut.
One cut.
Instant kill!!
In the mud pit behind.
The three of them were now like three dumb geese with their necks being choked, all gaping wide open.
The air froze for a full five seconds.
Sanemi's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, and he made meaningless "uh-uh" sounds.
He was internally screaming and slamming the table.
"What kind of international joke is this?! Are you kidding me?!"
"The final boss who just pinned the three of us to the ground and beat us mercilessly, forcing us to even prepare our last words, was instantly killed by this expressionless guy... with a single basic attack?!"
"Don't I have any dignity?!"
"All that heroic, death-ready expression I put on just now was for nothing!!"
Obanai's values were completely shattered.
He looked at the chipped knife in his hand, then at Giyu's tall, upright figure in the distance, and a sense of powerlessness welled up inside him.
The trio frantically tried to mentally rebuild their shattered worldviews.
But the Giyu in front didn't even sheath his sword.
He stared expressionlessly at the headless corpse slowly falling, his brows furrowing slightly.
Something's not right.
With the radar of [Transparent World] operating at full power, even the slightest tremor of a mosquito flapping its wings within a few kilometers was clearly visualized in his mind.
He keenly sensed that although the aura of the decapitated Zohakuten was rapidly weakening, the primordial life force belonging to the Upper Rank showed no signs of dying.
"A smokescreen?"
Giyu's sensory network expanded instantly.
The next second, he locked onto his target.
In a dense thicket a full kilometer away from this dead end.
A tiny, wretched old man, no bigger than the palm of your hand, with a huge "coward" character hanging on his body, was rolling around in the mud, using both his hands and feet to run.
The rat-like thing ran while tears streamed down its face, muttering to itself.
"That's terrifying! That's terrifying!"
"That expressionless man is a complete monster! How can there be such a terrifying human being!"
"You'll die! If I get caught, I'll be chopped into mincemeat!"
A cold glint flashed in Giyu's deep blue eyes.
That is the true form.
There wasn't even a second's hesitation.
Giyu strained his muscles, preparing to cross the kilometer-long distance and crush that disgusting rat to death in the mud.
But.
Just as he exerted force with his feet and took his first step...
A terrifying pressure, so familiar it was etched into his DNA, descended from the sky without warning!
Night sky.
The dense array of deep purple crescent blades resembled a sudden, irrational storm of blades.
They crashed down with a piercing shriek that seemed to tear through space, overwhelming everything in their path and ruthlessly blocking all of Giyu's way.
"Cut."
Giyu stopped in his tracks.
With a flick of his wrist, the Nichirin Blade in his hand danced in front of him, leaving a trail of afterimages.
The light blue ripples instantly intertwined to form an impenetrable circular water shield.
"Clang!!"
A deafening clang of metal clashing echoed through the dead-end alley.
Large bursts of sparks flew in all directions like fireworks.
This force that descended from the sky was astonishingly powerful; each tiny purple crescent moon was imbued with a strange and savage cutting force.
Even the current Giyu was forced to slide back half a step by this unreasonable impact.
The purple light and sparks that filled the sky slowly dissipated.
A tall, imposing figure dressed in a purple samurai outfit emerged from the shadows with unhurried steps.
Those six eerie eyes, gleaming with a cold, golden light, looked down upon everything from their lofty position.
In his hand, he held a long, grotesque knife covered in disgusting marks.
Upper Rank One.
Kokushibo!!
Arrival!!